
MONROVIA, Liberia— One accused trafficker has been released on bail and other cases look set to collapse as funding for the prosecution of human trafficking cases has been slashed.
By Anthony Stephens with New Narratives
In the run up to elections the Weah government slashed the $230,000 set aside for the anti-trafficking unit in the national 2023 budget to just $15,000. Anti-trafficking was one of many budget lines that were cut as the government approached elections with a $25.5 million funding shortfall.
“The elections and civil servants’ salaries were key critical issues that government focused on,” said Herodotus Emmanuel Payne, Jr., a spokesperson for the former Weah administration’s Ministry of Finance, by WhatsApp. “And obviously funds from other areas [were] redistributed to because of its critical nature in ensuring national peace and stability.”
That lack of funding has brought Liberia’s anti-trafficking efforts to a halt. This comes just a year after Liberia was hailed by the US State Department for the successful return of hundreds of women trafficked to Oman. Twelve traffickers were successfully prosecuted. Just one alleged trafficker –Sawo King Zubah– was acquitted.
Prosecutors and Adolphus Satiah, head of the anti-trafficking unit at the Labor Ministry, confirmed that no case has been tried since May and there has been no money to build cases. On Wednesday, in a major blow to anti-trafficking efforts, Jones Wilson Saytarkon, a schoolteacher accused of trafficking three women to Oman in 2022, was released on bail by Criminal Court “A”, the special court dedicated to trafficking cases and headed by Judge Roosevelt Willie, after the state failed to prosecute him within the legal period required.

There are now fears that Saytarkon will flee Liberia, as did Cephus Selebay, the last accused perpetrator to be granted bail. Selebay was also charged in the Oman trafficking operation. Despite three people acting as human guarantors that Selebay would appear for trial, the accused trafficker has been missing since late 2022. Saytarkon was also compelled to have three people stand as human bonds for him. They were Augustine S. Sieh, Linda Grace Wilson, and Samuel Toomey. Like Selebay, Saytarkon is to report to the court to sign the sheriff’s attendance record.
Another jailed accused trafficker, James Warner Jacobs, will come up for bail shortly and prosecutors are concerned he too will be released.
Judge Willie felt compelled to grant Saytarkon bail, in part, because two of the three women who were set to testify against him had signed “waivers of prosecution” signaling their unwillingness to testify against him. The women had signed the waivers, which have no legal standing, after threats and bribes from family members of Saytarkon. Witnesses are required to be protected in the course of judicial proceedings to shield them from such intimidation but prosecutors, anti-trafficking officials and the victims, said there was no money made available for protection.

One of the two witnesses told FPA/New Narratives she had been offered a bribe to sign the waiver by Jones’s brother whom she named as James Wilson. The women’s names are being withheld because of fears of retaliation.
“His brother were come from America say that when he go back before he will give me money,” said the woman in an interview. “They na give me money.” Saytarkon’s family has not immediately responded to requests for comment.
“It is upsetting,” said a highly place source inside the trafficking prosecution team who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the press. “It’s a state case. The women could not withdraw their statements/cases on their own. This is intended to send a signal that someone got to the victim, the victim is feeling pressured, the victim got paid off.”
But the woman said she had changed her mind about testifying after speaking with prosecutors and would willingly testify against Saktarkon and his alleged accomplice Princess Samuels if the case comes to court.
“Cllr. [Sumo C. Kutu] Akoi [the chief prosecutor for human trafficking in Liberia] and other lawyers made us to understand why we must prosecute Jones,” the witness said.
The third victim, who did not sign the form, stuck to her commitment to testify.
“He will learn and know how to not trick people, not play with their feelings, to not play with their emotions,” said the woman by phone. “We were traumatized. He took my life way back because since I left that county and came back, everything is upside down.”
Liberia had made major gains in anti-trafficking efforts in 2022 and 2023 after intense pressure from the U.S. Liberia had spent two years on the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report Watchlist. The Watchlist designates countries “whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards” and:
a) The estimated number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing and the country is not taking proportional concrete actions; or
b) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year.
After two years on the Watchlist a country faces downgrading to tier 3 and cuts in U.S. and other international aid. Liberia was moved off the watchlist in 2023 after the Weah administration increased funding, established the anti-trafficking unit and revised the anti-trafficking law to impose a minimum sentence of 20 years and a $100,000 fine on anyone convicted of trafficking.
Former National Security Administration staffer Arthur Chan Chan was the first government official convicted under the law. He was sentenced to 25 years and a $100,000 fine. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $11,000 to two victims who testified against him. Until February this year Judge Willie of Criminal Court A had done nothing to recover assets from Chan Chan to pay the restitution or the fine despite the law giving him the power to do so. Highly placed sources in the prosecutors’ office said discussions have now begun to make a case to the court to secure his assets. Senior prosecution and trafficking unit staff says they are pusing the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission to prosecute Chan-Chan for “abuse of his position” as a state security agent.
Antitrafficking experts say Liberia faces serious risk of going back on the watchlist after 2023’s massive backsliding. That will place a burden on the Boakai government to refocus attention on the issue.
“Delays in the government’s prosecution of trafficking cases are concerning as they can hinder the delivery of justice, perpetuate harm to victims,” said Jeddle Kinni, National Coordinator of the African Youth Peer Review Committee, which collaborated with other humanitarian organizations and individuals to repatriate women from Dubai and Oman. “These delays frustrate efforts to combat trafficking and protect vulnerable individuals and potentially allow perpetrators to continue their criminal activities.”

Satiah insisted that despite the setbacks, the country had locked in many advances in the last two years and was confident it would not be downgraded.
“We have created a lot of awareness on prevention,” said Satiah. “A lot of people are reporting human trafficking through the hotlines because we have provided money to lot of NGOs. We have been working well in the area of protection. Besides the Ministry of Gender, we have established four safe homes: two in Montserrado, one in Bomi, and one Margibi Counties. In the area of partnership, we are conducting our regular taskforce meetings on the last Friday of every month.”
For now, prosecutors and victims are waiting on President Boakai to appoint a new minister, and for the government to decide whether anti-trafficking efforts will be a priority in the new budget.
This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the “Investigating Liberia” project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia. The funder had no say in the story’s content.